Summary
The event that has drawn the most attention this week is neither a ranking nor a product launch, but an unexpected institutional request: Enseignement catholique, through the SGEC, has called for September 25 to be declared a day off across all private schools to coincide with the visit of Pope Leo XIV. This request goes well beyond the usual scope of schooling and serves as a reminder that French education remains shaped by strong symbolic and identity-related issues, far beyond purely pedagogical or digital questions.
Details
Alongside this singular news, the 2026 school year is being played out above all in the fields of academic excellence and digital innovation. HEC Paris has published its new back-to-school updates and confirms its status as the undisputed reference point of French higher education, a role it now shares with players from a very different world: Duolingo continues to assert its presence thanks to an ever-growing community of learners and regular product updates that keep its millions of users engaged every day. Following in the footsteps of the major business schools, ESSEC has unveiled a development in its Master in Management program designed for the 2026 academic year, a sign that long-established business schools are seeking to modernize their curricula without giving up their prestige, while ESCP is capitalizing on its presence in international rankings closely followed by French families. CNED, for its part, confirms its central role thanks to its calendar and content designed for the 2026-2027 school year, a safe bet for all those who favor distance learning. In the language segment, competition is in full swing: Babbel has published new content and studies on language learning in France, while Rosetta Stone continues to make headlines with product innovations that sustain its long-standing reputation. Finally, professional and continuing education is not being left behind: OpenClassrooms is highlighting a recent accreditation that strengthens its credibility with companies and learners, while Coursera is drawing attention with its professional certificates and announcements related to embedded artificial intelligence in its learning paths, proof that even the most established platforms must constantly reinvent themselves to remain attractive.
- 1Alongside this singular news, the 2026 school year is being played out above all in the fields of academic excellence and digital innovation.
- 2CNED, for its part, confirms its central role thanks to its calendar and content designed for the 2026-2027 school year, a safe bet for all those who favor distance learning.
- 3This request goes well beyond the usual scope of schooling and serves as a reminder that French education remains shaped by strong symbolic and identity-related issues, far beyond purely pedagogical or digital questions.
Conclusion
This overview points to a school year moving at several speeds, where the tradition of France's grand écoles coexists with the power of learning apps that have become indispensable in the daily lives of the French, and with religious or public institutions that remind us that school remains a space for societal debate. Between the academic prestige of HEC or ESSEC, the digital convenience of Duolingo or Babbel, and the symbolic weight of the SGEC request, French education once again proves that it is never limited to a single dimension: it is at once knowledge, market and symbol.